


SouKisu Week 2016

by popnographic



Series: Rarepair drabbles [20]
Category: Free!
Genre: Angst, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-25
Updated: 2016-03-01
Packaged: 2018-05-23 03:21:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6103177
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/popnographic/pseuds/popnographic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SouKisu Week 2016 entries.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **First time** \- _doing things right_.

He takes the same walk home after work every day, sees the same scenery that he somehow just can’t get tired of. Walking down by the river when the sun is setting is just one of those sights people shouldn’t be allowed to get tired of; seeing people in the park, how the orange-ish pink evening sun reflects on the water’s surface, glimmering almost to the point of it stinging in one’s eyes.

Kisumi likes living in a place like this; it isn’t a city, nor is it close to being considered the countryside. It’s a small town where he recognises most faces, and sometimes, that thought kind of scares him knowing he’s got little to no privacy, but most of the time it’s just comforting, makes him feel at home. Coming back here was a good decision.

Swinging his suit jacket over his shoulder, Kisumi loosens his tie a bit. It’s still summer, and still pretty warm out despite it being after five. It’s very obvious that it’s still summer, since the heat inside his office has reminded him of it for the past three days, even with his two big windows open. They told him they’d come fix the air conditioning unit the same day he’d reported it having broken, but then again—that was three days ago.

He turns his head to look ahead of him again, and stops dead in his tracks. His eyebrows shoot up in surprise, and his first instinct is to call out, say hey. But then he wonders, will he be greeted the way he hopes, or expects? He has no idea; it’s been several years, and even though nothing’s happened between _them_ in that time, things may have happened on Sousuke’s end.

Kisumi isn’t the first one to say something, however. Sousuke looks up from where he stands, leaning against the wall of the little kiosk that must’ve closed not too long ago. He’s just lit a cigarette, and it’s dangling from his lips, the smoke coming from his slow exhale forming a cloud that only lasts a few seconds. Did Sousuke smoke the last time Kisumi met him? He doesn’t remember, but assumes he didn’t.

“Hey,” Sousuke says, and Kisumi lets out a quiet breath.

“Hey. It’s been a while.”

“Yeah. How’re you doing?”

 _Conversational_. It doesn’t fit Sousuke, but Kisumi doesn’t dislike it. He’s always been under the impression that Sousuke hated small talk and avoided it at all costs, yet here they are, meeting again after who knows _how_ many years, doing that thing Sousuke used to hate. Might still hate, Kisumi doesn’t know. Maybe he’s being courteous, like one would be towards someone you’ve either never met before, or someone you haven’t met in ages. Kisumi’s glad Sousuke didn’t put him in the latter category.

“Good, good. Can’t complain. You?”

“Same old.”

It’s always been like this with Sousuke. Awkward, like walking on eggshells around him. Kisumi was never afraid of Sousuke per se, because he knows Sousuke wouldn’t ever hurt anyone. But he’s always been afraid of screwing up with Sousuke, and that’s the impression he got the last time they met. That he screwed up. And now they’ve met again, and Kisumi wonders.

_Am I in the clear after all this time? Is this why Sousuke isn’t treating me like a stranger he’s never met?_

“You busy?” Sousuke continues, and Kisumi snaps right out of his daydreaming, watching Sousuke put out his cigarette with the heel of his shoe before he pops a gum into his mouth. It looks like a habit he’s kept up for a while, and Kisumi can’t help but wonder what started it all.

“Not really, no. Just on my way home from work. Why?”

“I wanted to see you.”

Sousuke throws another surprise at him, and Kisumi almost expects the worst. Is it bad of him to do so, because it’s Sousuke? Because it’s been so long, and he hasn’t changed a bit but Sousuke apparently has?

“Okay,” he replies tentatively, wondering if what he’s about to ask next is such a good idea. “Well… come back to my place? We could talk there. If you want. Unless—“

“Yeah,” Sousuke thankfully interrupts. “Yeah, I do.”

 

* * *

 

His self from all those years ago would’ve blabbered Sousuke’s ears off on their way to his apartment, but present day Kisumi knows better. Learnt over time from the mistakes he made back then that had them end up the way they did, before they went their separate ways.

It’s naïve to think of it as _all_ of them having gone their separate ways, even though it’s partly the truth. They _did_ all go their separate ways, but it was different for Kisumi and Sousuke. It always was, of course, because they were never just friends. Things took off almost too fast for the two of them, and even Kisumi had a hard time keeping up with the pace, and maybe that’s why things came to a screeching halt, ending up with them getting thrown out of the car as it stopped.

But Kisumi wants to get up and get right back in, pick right up where they left off.

“Listen, I wanted… to apologise.”

Kisumi looks at Sousuke, and sees nothing but grave sincerity and determination. Sousuke’s always been like that; eyes set on what he wants in life and doing whatever it takes to get there, even if it hurts him in the process. _You won’t know unless you try_.

“Why? For what?” he asks. They’ve barely even made it inside his apartment, and in normal circumstances he’d be kind of nervous letting Sousuke inside since Sousuke hasn’t been there before, but right now, his mind is elsewhere.

“I was unfair to you back then. I guess I wanna make it up to you. Start over, do things right for… well, probably the first time.”

Kisumi ponders Sousuke’s words, lets them sink in. This is a lot of talking in terms of the two of them, and that probably says something about how they’ve grown in the time they’ve been apart. He isn’t one to hold grudges, not one to bother dwelling on what’s already been. He wants to live in the now, look towards the future and let the past stay where it belongs. Most of the time he fails in trying to not think about the past, but trying is half the battle, or so he tells himself.

“So you’re stalking me now?” Kisumi asks, daring to use a joking tone. Sousuke thankfully smiles at that, shaking his head.

“I told you I wanted to see you.”

He sighs, relaxing his shoulders. Sousuke’s standing right in front of him, and it takes all of Kisumi’s willpower to not just pull Sousuke down for a kiss he’s wanted for so long. Being brash has hurt him in the past, and he’s smart enough to not put his hands over the fire again, even if it warms him from a short distance and is tempting.

“I’m glad you did. I wanted to see you, too.”

Sousuke closes their distance down to a few centimetres, and then they become mere millimetres as he pulls Kisumi in for a kiss. Puts his hand behind Kisumi’s head, letting his fingers tangle in Kisumi’s hair and letting out a sigh through his nose. Kisumi’s heart skips a beat; he’s surprised at just how he _feels_ how much Sousuke wants this, and probably has for a while. Maybe for as long as Kisumi has, but it took him this long to spring to action. Kisumi isn’t really one to complain about it since he could’ve done it himself whenever he wanted, though he was too scared to.

He stands on his toes, wraps his arms around Sousuke’s neck and doesn’t let go.

“’m sorry,” Sousuke mumbles against his lips.

“I’m sorry, too,” he replies, and Sousuke picks up right where they left off. Just like Kisumi wants him to, not letting things get in between them. They’ve done it so many times that it’s probably impossible to count on ten fingers, and even though that’s in the past and something Kisumi shouldn’t dwell on, he can’t help it. It might serve as a reminder, as a warning that they could end up there again if they make the same mistakes as they did then.

Kisumi _still_ doesn’t let go, even as Sousuke’s lips completely separate from his.

“You’re not gonna let go?” Sousuke asks, and he smiles.

“No.”

“Then how am I gonna get home?”

“Don’t. Stay.”

 _I finally got you back, and I’m not letting you go again unless you tell me to_.

“Okay. Yeah, I’ll stay.”

It sounds like a promise in Kisumi’s ears, and while he knows not to believe in everything at face value, he appreciates the hidden meaning behind those words that Sousuke wants him to find.

“You know, I’m really glad you have chewing gum in your mouth.”

Sousuke laughs a little. “Trying to stop, I promise.”

“Good. I could make us dinner, if you want,” Kisumi says as he steps down, his arms falling to his sides. Sousuke recoils at those words, and Kisumi wonders if he regrets promising to stay.

“Compromise: we’re ordering in and I’m paying. _You_ may have changed, but I don’t trust your cooking skills to have done the same.”

“You’re mean!”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Day 2** \- _domestic_.
> 
> Kisumi doesn't care that others think he's being old-fashioned by keeping physical photo albums instead of electronic copies on a hard-drive. It's easier to look through, and it _feels_ better. Most of the time.

“That took way longer than it should have.”

“Well,” Kisumi says, leaning against Sousuke with one elbow on his shoulder, “the end result is what counts. It looks nice.”

There are folded cardboard boxes stacked in one of the corners of their new apartment, but otherwise it’s pretty much come together, after a lot of work. It took them just about two days to get everything inside; things up on shelves and inside cabinets, carrying up the sofa and reassembling the bed, and after having filled said cabinets, shelves and the fridge, all that’s left to do is to put up all of the decorations, including Kisumi’s plants which Sousuke _still_ isn’t too fond of.

Sousuke hums in half-hearted agreement. “Now there’s just the superficial stuff left, I guess… and your goddamn flowers. Hey, what about that box?”

“It’s nothing important,” Kisumi responds with a shrug, looking in the same direction Sousuke is. They’ve done a decent job with labelling their boxes so they’d know what’s in them before opening them, but the one they’re currently looking at is one of the very few Kisumi had forgot to label. Or _pretended_ to forget. “I’ll take care of it after we’ve had lunch, because now all I want to do is eat.”

“Is that the heavy ass box I helped you carry out to the car?”

Kisumi laughs a little. “It is.”

“What’s in it?”

 _The past_. “Oh, just some photo albums.”

“Oh yeah. How am I not surprised? Of _course_ that box had to be heavy; you take photos of literally everything.”

“And you,” Kisumi says in a sweet tone that makes Sousuke shiver next to him, and he laughs, lightly bumping their heads together. “I like taking photos.”

“So I’ve noticed. Now come on, I’m hungry.”

 

* * *

 

Kisumi lets Sousuke take the lead, down the street into the busier area of town where they have lunch. Sousuke orders deep fried pork cutlets with rice and a side salad ‘as a celebration of finally having moved in proper’, while Kisumi decides on a slightly healthier alternative where his food at least hasn’t been deep fried. They aren’t always eating the healthiest foods, but sometimes it’s just cheaper that way.

When they return, the two split up; Sousuke taking care of hanging the few paintings they have on the walls, and Kisumi placing out his plants—a task Sousuke is more than glad to leave to the ‘owner’ himself.

Kisumi takes plant by plant out of their wrappings before carrying them one by one and placing them in a spot he deems fitting. The one really sticking out is the orchid he’d gotten from Hayato just before moving in, but otherwise there’s a red bromeliad from Rin and Makoto (mostly from Makoto), and a ficus he’d bought himself that’s small enough to fit on the side table next to their couch.

Sousuke’s still hanging things up on the walls when he’s done, and by the sounds of it, Sousuke’s having a few issues, and Kisumi’s wise enough to butt in until he’s called in to do so. So he finally decides to take care of the final, unlabelled box left in the corner between the hallway and the kitchen. He hasn’t looked through most of those photo albums in _ages_ , the ones he’s actually looking through being the books he’s still busy filling with new photographs every now and then.

His so-called boyfriend calls him a sap and analogue since Kisumi keeps things in physical photo albums instead on an external hard-drive, but as usual, Kisumi doesn’t care what Sousuke thinks. He likes having something physical to flip through where he doesn’t have to turn something on and have it load up things when he can just open a photo album in his hands instead.

“I knew you’d end up there.”

Kisumi flinches when he feels Sousuke sit down behind him, resting his chin on Kisumi’s shoulder. “Don’t scare me like that,” he says, and Sousuke snorts.

“I still owe you a bunch of scares from all the times you’ve scared me, you know.”

“Oh, so you admit I _did_ scare you?”

“ _Tried_ to scare,” Sousuke corrects himself, and Kisumi shakes his head, smiling.

“Nice save.”

He’d placed his photo albums in reverse-chronological order as they’d been placed on the shelf back at their old apartment, so now he’s holding his first one in his hands. He begins flipping through it, and is surprised to find Sousuke still sitting behind him, seemingly looking through the photos with him. Not that he dislikes it; he’s almost kind of touched by it.

There are a lot of photos of his middle school friends; a few of Rin just before he moved to Australia, Sousuke in the background of some of them. There are half-blurry pictures taken by Kisumi where he’s taken pictures of himself with some of his classmates or people from the basketball team, a few pictures he’s taken when he’s been on the bench.

“I can’t believe they didn’t catch you,” Sousuke murmurs, and Kisumi shrugs, smiling.

“I’m sneaky.”

“ _Was_. You’re really bad at sneaking pictures these days.”

The next album doesn’t contain any pictures of Rin at all, seeing as that was right after he’d moved to start off elementary school in a different country, on a completely different continent. Sousuke’s barely even seen in these pictures, either, but there’s more of his other friends. He’s managed to take a few pictures with Haruka and Makoto, but amidst all of the other photos, they’re probably considered rare.

“I remember this,” Sousuke says, pointing at one picture just as Kisumi’s flipped to a new page. “I was such a pain to you back then.”

“Who says you still aren’t?”

Sousuke grunts, lightly kicking Kisumi in the side.

It’s a photo Kisumi had taken during one of the rare occasions he and Sousuke had lunch together in school. Having been in different classes, their lunch times were slightly different, so most of the time they’d ended up missing each other. In said picture, Sousuke’s pouting, facing away from the camera and propping his chin up on his palm, elbow resting on the table. It’s one of Kisumi’s favourite photos of Sousuke when he was a child, and one he made an extra copy of that he keeps folded up in his wallet.

 

* * *

 

His friends get fewer in the photographs as the years go on and as he gets older. High school rolls around, and Kisumi takes more photos of _objects_ , and there are far less people in them. Kisumi himself has almost completely disappeared from the photos, save from the two photos he has of himself and Hayato. There’s one photo of him and Makoto, both doing the V-sign and smiling at the camera, and it’s a photo that makes Kisumi smile, though thinking back to that time makes his chest ache ever so slightly.

“When was this?”

“Makoto was coaching at Iwatobi SC with Sasabe,” Kisumi explains. “Third year of high school. I don’t remember why he did it, but it made us kind of reconnect, I guess, seeing as Hayato was in his group.”

 “I see that,” Sousuke says, and Kisumi notices the slight change in his tone. “You know… aside from the photos of Hayato, the one you took with Tachibana is pretty much the only one where there are _people_ in the photo instead of… _things_.”

Sousuke’s perceptive, more so than Kisumi wants him to be, especially in situations like these. He’s glad that Sousuke hasn’t asked him about these things before, because it isn’t exactly something he likes to talk about, less so _think_ about. It’s in the past, where it belongs, and it pains him to have to bring it up again. If it’s something Kisumi knows he shouldn’t do, it’s to hide something from the person he loves.

“Well, people kind of fell out of my life around then,” he admits slowly, both to Sousuke and himself. It’s the first time he really talks about it, and it’s something he hasn’t really wanted to acknowledge before. “You know, changing schools and all that.”

“You didn’t stay in touch?”

“We tried, but it didn’t work out. I got tired of being the one to constantly instigate things, you know?”

He feels Sousuke tighten his embrace around his waist, and he lets out a slow exhale.

“You should’ve said something.”

“No offence, Sousuke, but you didn’t really like me in high school.”

Sousuke makes a protesting sound, but his words don’t make it past his lips. They both know it’s true, and Kisumi knows what he’d done wrong back then to the ones he’d really wanted to keep in his life. He didn’t know back _then_ , and that’s probably what kept Sousuke away for so long, until they finally reconnected quite a bit after high school.

Sometimes, Kisumi wonders to himself why he’s keeping these photos if the memories that come back to him aren’t good ones. But then he tells himself it’s only a good thing to keep them, because they can serve as a reminder that things _used_ to be dark and gloomy for a period in his life, but they did eventually get better.

He finally closes the high school album, or the high school chapter of his life, and opens the still incomplete one that had been at the bottom of the box. The smile from earlier tugs at the corners of his mouth when he hears Sousuke groan in embarrassment upon opening the first page.

“Why are you so embarrassed?” he teases. “I like this photo.”

“It’s not the photo, it’s the goddamn memory of that day.”

 “What, you didn’t like our first date?” Kisumi says in a fake-hurt voice.

“You don’t remember how long we had to wait for _everything_ , from the food to the bill? How it’d been raining so much we got soaked just on the walk back? Because I do. I also remember how much my hands were shaking when I tried to kiss you, and that wasn’t because was cold.”

It’s a photo of the restaurant, taken from the front as Kisumi had been waiting for Sousuke to arrive. He hadn’t eaten there before, but had heard good rumours about it that afterwards didn’t make sense to him since he couldn’t agree with them. So the food wasn’t great, sure, but his company and date in general had been, but Sousuke—of course—is still hung up on it.

“I thought it was cute,” Kisumi says in a small voice, still smiling as he leans his head on Sousuke’s. “Things aren’t always perfect, you know. And I think our second date more than made up for it.”

Their second date had been at Sousuke’s apartment when Sousuke made him dinner, and Kisumi had taken the liberty of taking a picture of the two, with him kissing Sousuke on the cheek. The expression on Sousuke’s face reminds Kisumi of the one he has on that one photo in his wallet. In some ways, Sousuke hasn’t changed much since then, but he also has, and quite a lot.

“Guess you’re right,” Sousuke mumbles into Kisumi’s hair, planting a kiss on his head.

There are more photos of Sousuke, of Rin and Makoto, of all four of them together and even Haruka in one of them, and a few pictures of Kisumi and Hayato whenever Hayato had come to visit, or Kisumi had gone back home for a weekend, either alone or with Sousuke whenever work permitted.

“I have an idea,” Kisumi says, pulling his trusty phone out of his pocket. Sousuke recoils, probably realising what Kisumi has in mind, but Kisumi is—obviously—faster, and holds Sousuke in place by grabbing his arm. “Always faster than you.”

“ _Always?_ ”

“Oh, you know it doesn’t apply in bed.”

The little photo printer Makoto had given Kisumi a year prior on his birthday has really come in handy, and saves him money in the way that he doesn’t have to go and get photos developed in the shop downtown.

Technology these days makes it possible for him to transfer photos from his phone to the printer, something his old, even more analogue and old-fashioned self would scoff at. This way, at least he gets to keep them in physical albums like he wants to, without having to give into peer pressure and go electronic.

With a little persuasion and a promise from Kisumi that he’ll make dinner, Sousuke agrees to Kisumi taking a photo of them to commemorate them moving into a new apartment. That evening after dinner, Kisumi prints the photo and puts it in the first empty slot of the newest photo album before putting it back in the bookshelf among his other albums and memories.

“I’ve gotta admit,” Sousuke says, his arms around Kisumi’s waist, “though your hobby is weird, it’s kinda cute, and practical. At least a bit.”

“Weird and cute,” Kisumi repeats. “I feel like you’ve called _me_ that before.”

Sousuke laughs. “I probably have, yeah.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr](http://popnographic.tk).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Day 7** \- _Free_.
> 
> Sousuke sees the silver lining on the horizon.

Seeing Rin off had been surprisingly easy. Sousuke assumes it might be because they’ve done this before, and they always know they’ll see each other again. This time around, they’ve grown up, they’re more mature—could be debated in some cases—and they know how to better stay in touch. So they promise they will, and Kisumi assures Rin he’ll bug Sousuke about it, much to Sousuke’s chagrin.

The week after Sousuke’s turned eighteen, he finally obtains his driver’s licence. Whether it’s out of guilt or as some sort of weird bribery, Sousuke doesn’t know, but his parents pay for both his licence _and_ give him a car. It’s a used car, sure, but it’s a car nonetheless that’ll get him places. Get him away from Tottori, for one thing, which has been his goal for a few years now.

Finally, he sees the silver lining on the horizon.

He doesn’t feel remorse in leaving his parents, and they don’t seem very sad about him leaving, either. It’s another reason for him to believe that them paying for his driver’s licence and car was just their last little push to get him out of their boundary of responsibilities.

Sousuke drives away from his house to the dock where he’ll pick up Kisumi, and he doesn’t look back at the house he grew up in.

 

* * *

 

The wind feels nice in his hair, against his skin. It’s still summer, but soon autumn’s going to arrive and remind him that the colder season is coming, along with responsibilities and real life. Before that happens, Sousuke has one thing he really wants to do, before he’ll have to face reality, get himself a job and start life back up again. For now, he’s on break, Kisumi’s going with him, and he’s free. No longer having to wear the black, white and red Samezuka uniform, Sousuke’s become his own person again. No more schools, no more swimming, it’s just him, Kisumi, and the future they have ahead of them.

Something he’s really going to miss in Tottori is living right by the ocean. The view from this dock looking out over the seemingly endless water spreading out in front of him is absolutely beautiful, and it’s a place he’s gone to several times by himself just to sit and stare out towards the horizon, either watching the sun rise or set. There’s no telling he’ll ever be able to live near a place like this again, and while he _is_ going to miss certain parts about living in Tottori, all in all, he can’t wait to leave it behind.

Sousuke takes a deep breath, exhales slowly before adjusting the bag strap on his left shoulder. His right shoulder has yet to heal properly, but at least he won’t be straining it much at all for a while, with him having given up on swimming and aiming for a job that isn’t physical labour. If he can’t find it in one town, he’ll have to drive to the next one and keep searching.

That car’s really going to come in handy.

“Sousuke! Sorry, did you wait long?”

He sighs to himself, shaking his head. There’s sound of footsteps coming closer, fast approaching, and then they stop just before two arms wrap around his waist.

“You’re late,” he mutters.

“I said I’m sorry,” Kisumi pouts. “Is this all the packing you’re taking with you?”

Sousuke snorts, turning around. “I obviously have the rest shoved in the back of the car. Get your stuff in there already, I’m itching to get out of here.”

“Alright, captain,” Kisumi says and does a fake salute, which Sousuke just rolls his eyes at before they start walking back to the car.

It feels strange, leaving, like they’re running away. And maybe in a sense, they kind of _are_. There’s nothing left for them here in Tottori, seeing as all of their friends moved away either within the country or to a different continent, and while Kisumi still has family in Iwatobi, there’s really nothing stopping him from coming back to visit.

In Sousuke’s case, Tottori has given him all it could ever offer, and now it’s time to move onto the next place, wherever that’ll be. Hopefully this road trip of theirs will give them an idea of where they want to settle down next.

 

* * *

 

“So where do you wanna go?” Sousuke asks, turning on his GPS. Kisumi snickers next to him, fastening his seatbelt.

“Funny how you never bothered to take one of those maps of your campus—that were _free_ —but now you’re using a GPS.”

Sousuke glares daggers at Kisumi, kicking him in the shin. “Fuck you, okay? It’s different navigating a campus from the entire _country_.”

“We’re driving around the entire country?”

“Details, Shigino. Now, where to?”

Kisumi leans against his shoulder and lets out a dreamy sigh. “To the stars.”

“Oh my _god_ you’re embarrassing.”

They eventually decide on driving down to Nagato, which is a five or six-hour drive depending on traffic. From there, it’s not too long of a drive to the harbour from where they can take the ferry over to Kyushu, so it’s a pretty good route to drive. Besides, most of the drive is going to be along the coast, anyway, so they’ll have plenty of time on the drive down to take in the ocean view before they might not see it as often anymore once they settle down somewhere.

When they finally drive away from the port of Iwami and eventually out of Tottori, Sousuke doesn’t look back, just like he hadn’t when he drove away from his parents’ house. He feels Kisumi looking at him, but is thankful when Kisumi doesn’t say or ask anything.

“You know, I have relatives in Fukuoka we could go down and visit while we’re in Kyushu. They’d probably provide us with a place to stay, too.”

Sousuke cringes. “I don’t wanna be skinned alive in case they don’t approve of me.”

“They’re not like that!” Kisumi protests. “It’s just my aunt and her two kids, or my cousins. I promise it won’t be bad. And besides, we’re not staying longer than one night or two.”

“Fine,” Sousuke sighs. “You’re paying for a hotel night if it ends up being a bad experience even in the slightest.”

On the way down to Nagato, Kisumi and Sousuke get to see many things they’ve never seen before, in some cases not even _heard_ of, like a few mountains and beautiful lakes. If anything, it makes Sousuke realise that there’s a lot left out there for him to explore, and that having lived in Tottori for so long with a few years in Tokyo has really clouded his vision, making him underestimate just how big Japan is.

Just as the sun starts setting, the two stop by a little minimart in Sanmi to get some food, and then drive down to Nagato where they park the car not too far away from a shrine. Kisumi convinces Sousuke to go up to the shrine with him after they’ve eaten, and while he’d been groaning at the idea at first, the view from the top made it worth it.

“It’s getting dark,” Sousuke says. “We should really try and find a place to stay for the night.”

“Why not just sleep in the car? It’s still warm out at night, so we won’t freeze to death. ‘Sides, it saves us money. And I wanna lie here and look at the stars.”

“I don’t even know where to start with that,” Sousuke replies dryly. “You wanna sleep in the car? We won’t fit.”

“We’ll _definitely_ fit, we’re not that big. One sleeps in the front, one in the back. Unless you wanna move our bags from the back and have someone sleep there. It’ll work out fine!”

Sousuke wonders _how_ someone can have so much optimism and naïveté at once, but this is Kisumi, and he might just be a special case.

“Come on,” Kisumi continues. “We won’t have time to do things like these soon. _Carpe diem_ , right?”

And like when Sousuke had been dragged up to the shrine, he finds himself now lying on his back on the hood of his car next to Kisumi, and staring up at the darkening sky above. Soon enough, they do see stars thanks to the sky having been relatively cloud free during the day, and he can’t deny the fact that it’s pretty enjoyable. It’s quiet around them, aside from the distant sound of cars going by, and like Kisumi said, the summer air is nice even at night.

“So despite our sleeping arrangements,” Sousuke says, groaning slightly as he turns to his side. He’s taken the back since it has a little more space, but Kisumi didn’t really mind sleeping on the front seats, anyway. “This was a pretty good idea.”

“I told you so,” Kisumi yawns. He reaches a hand in between the seats and grabs Sousuke’s. “I’m glad we’re doing this together. It’s gonna be exciting.”

“Sap,” Sousuke grunts, before letting go of Kisumi’s hand and turning around. “I’m glad you’re with me, too.”

“I heard that. Love you.”

“ _Please_ just go to sleep.”

 

* * *

 

Despite the slight ache in his back and neck from having slept in an uncomfortable position, Sousuke wakes up feeling pretty well-rested, and the two brush their teeth in the little forest area right by the shrine, sharing a bottle of water. Sousuke wonders if that’s considered sacrilegious considering they’re parked pretty close to a shrine, but eventually shrugs it off. They probably won’t be back here, anyway.

With Kisumi sitting next to him—his feet up on the dashboard which Sousuke’s told him _countless_ times not to do but eventually given up on—Sousuke starts the car and begins driving away, further south towards Kyushu. As for where they’re headed next, he has no idea, but that’s half the excitement about their journey from now on. He’s free to do whatever he wants, so that’s what he’s going to do. To seize the day, or _carpe diem_ , as Kisumi would say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr](http://popnographic.tk).

**Author's Note:**

> [tumblr](http://radiodread.tumblr.com)


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